A tomato eating moth is threatening crops in the Near East; the tomato borer, the lava of the Tuta absoluta moth can cause damage to many parts of the tomato plant and lead to 100 per cent crop losses in extreme cases.  

The pest is currently affecting tomato crops in the Mediterranean, Near East and North Africa. However, attempts to control the tomato borer, sometimes also called the tomato leafminer, have been hampered as the moths have developed resistance to pesticides in some cases.

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Tomato borers feed on many plants in the solanaceae family; the most important horticultural plant family, which also contains potatoes, aubergines and numerous types of peppers. The small moths were first discovered in Spain in 2006, having been introduced from South America, and have since spread throughout Southern Europe, North Africa and South West Asia.

Rather than resorting to use of more damaging pesticides to kill tomato borers, the UN Food and Agriculture Agency, working with partner organisations in affected countries, is promoting management using “soft” control measures. There are plans for a regional drive to control the moths in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, drawing on lower impact techniques used most recently in various Mediterranean countries.

The idea behind the management drive is to keep damage to a minimum with environmentally and economically sustainable methods that reduce the heavy use of pesticides, and favour the use of natural enemies and "attract-and-kill" pheromone traps.

Other ‘softer’ control methods include introducing insect-proof screens and double doors in greenhouses, nursery management and insect-free planting materials, rotating plants in the solanaceae family with crops that do not appeal to the insects and, in some cases, removing wild host plants.

Khaled Alrouechdi, pest management expert at the FAO said, "Some countries have been able to minimise the [tomato borer’s] ability to reproduce, and limit its potential to spread and damage crops. FAO's objective is to replicate this success as the pest makes its way east and southeast. There are two reasons why we aim to reduce the level of pesticides used: First, the heavy application of chemicals is not environmentally sustainable. Second, the tomato borer has been known to rapidly develop resistance to insecticides."

He continued, "Pheromones have long been used in various countries for monitoring and mass trapping. It's considered economical, it's easy to use, and it has been well accepted by farmers. The use of pheromone traps, collectively by farmers, to eliminate insects using what we call the attract-and-kill method is one of our most promising options," he added.

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